The Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) announced on May 8 the launch of its DC Builds Credit and Prosperity Campaign.
The campaign is designed to benefit low- and moderate-income Black, Latinx, and Immigrant families in the District by helping them improve their credit scores.
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, almost 1 in 5 District residents are credit invisible, have a thin credit file, or are unscorable. This means that almost 20% of adults in the city would not be able to achieve basic needs for which a credit score plays a key role: renting an apartment, buying driver’s insurance, getting a job, securing a mortgage, etc.
According to Demo and the NAACP, Black borrowers are on average charged higher interest rates vs. white borrowers by credit card companies. The Urban Institute reports one-third of Black District residents who have access to have subprime credit scores, meaning they are 5.7 times higher than whites in the city.
“We are excited to add DC Builds Credit and Prosperity to the set of intentional strategies CAAB has developed over the past five years to financially empower low-to-moderate income Black, Latinx, and Immigrant Washingtonians,” said Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, CAAB’s CEO and executive director. “We are proudly focusing on intentionally addressing and closing the racial wealth gap in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.”
